Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Make the school a pleasant place' that was published in Newsband

Make the school a pleasant place

A survey revealed that poverty and academic disinterest as major reasons for children dropping out of school. The picture is gloomy if we look more closely at the status of marginal groups in this study. The survey reveals that a higher percentage of female children are out of school than males; more children from rural areas are out of school than from urban areas. There are also quite a big number of Muslim children and kids belonging to Scheduled Tribes and those with special needs who are out of school.

“Education for All” scheme applies too much emphasis on infrastructural reform, providing transportation, books, uniforms, etc. Attention should also be paid to the discrimination faced by a ‘lower caste-rural-girl child’ in school as against an ‘upper caste-urban-boy child’.

Schools are not merely work force creating factories, but also a tool to instill community feeling among children. At the same time we should remember that different communities have different perceptions about Education and the probability of success of their children in schools. In addition, some have notions like: Girls do not require schooling, Education is for the rich and the elite, Boys and girls need separate schools and separate content.

What the children require is to give meaningful livelihood for the parents. That will automatically send the children to school as no parent want their child to be on the street.

Corruption is the root cause of the whole problem as the government and NGO funds are looted by the so called administrator in collusion with corrupt politicians and government officials. Unless that is stopped no amount of money spent by government will ever reach poor.

Poverty at home end pulls the child out of school. Malnutrition of children is another reason. Ill equipment at the school ends, a third factor. Inane syllabus, non-involvement of most of the teaching personnels and lack of equipments are other reasons. In the curricular front, awful lack of basic amenities for students and the apathy of the authorities are some of the main roots of the cause for the deploring conditions.

Schools must be allowed to grow showing their uniqueness and of course, all such schools must be open to all. The Governments at the Center and States must keep an eye on the pace and progress of these institutions. The teachers should be involved and dedicated. Only then everything will go fine. Providing basic infrastructure, books, uniforms, transportation and mid day meals is a necessity.

Education is of prime importance for growth of any country. Government should come up with all the measures possible for creating awareness of importance of education and Government should more focus on the brilliant students and use them to build the nation.

It is worth noting that this progress has come about not because of the government schools where the teachers don't show up and the buildings are paid for and never constructed. It happened because the parents in cities and villages decided that it was better for their children's future that they be educated. The next challenge is to improve the quality of education at these schools and once again we need to look beyond the government (or the budget) to overcome those challenges.